Web sites listed in the "Internet Resources on Resilience" section of ResilienceNet are reviewed by a panel of experts. The evaluation criteria used by panel members are provided below. Note that they are not absolute criteria, that is, a Web site doesn’t have to get a "positive" score on each question to be recommended.
Relevance
- Is the site relevant for some part of the intended audience for ResilienceNet?
Authority
- Is the purpose of the site clearly stated?
- Is it clear who sponsors the site?
- Is there information about the site sponsor?
- Is the goal or mission of the sponsoring organization indicated?
- Are the authors of the content on the site identified?
- Do you believe the authors are knowledgeable about their topic?
- Is there a provision for feedback, through e-mail or a Web-based form?
- Is contact information, including a postal address, provided?
Content
- Is there sufficient content that is useful to warrant inclusion in ResilienceNet?
- Is the topic covered thoroughly?
- Does the content appear to be accurate?
- Is the content objective? OR, if there is an apparent bias, is it clearly identified?
- As far as you can tell, is the content up-to-date?
- Is the text free of grammatical, typographical, and spelling errors?
- Do page titles or heading accurately describe what information is presented?
- As far as you can tell, are the links at this site to other sites appropriate?
- As far as you can tell, are the links to other sites kept up to date?
- Can one freely copy or download the content of the site?
General Design
- Is the design of the home page and remainder of the site attractive?
- Does the design help or hinder access to the content of the site?
- Is the design consistent across pages?
- Is the content organized in an easy-to-follow way?
Navigation
- Is there an easy-to-follow menu or table of contents page?
- Is it generally easy to find information on the site?
- Is it easy to move across the pages of the site?
- Is it easy to move back to a previous page, or to the home page?
- Does the site have a search engine?
- Are instruction provided for moving across the site or using interactive search features (such as a search engine)?
Server Performance and Technical issues
When evaluating these criteria, please consider that most of these features (such as speed of page loading) are partly dependent on the Web server and partly dependent on your own computer, modem, and Internet provider.
- Do the pages load quickly?
- Do the graphics load quickly?
- Do other (than graphic) nontext features work appropriately?
- Do nontext features (graphics, sound, video, etc.) serve a purpose related to content?
- Is private information (e.g., credit card number, social security number) requested on this site?
